WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris continued her busy schedule of news media interviews Tuesday, sitting down with Hallie Jackson of NBC News to discuss how she would distinguish herself from President Joe Biden and whether she thought race and gender were shaping the public’s response to her.
Harris largely stuck to safe territory, declining to engage with questions about whether she would pardon former President Donald Trump or how her administration would operate if Republicans controlled both chambers in Congress.
But she did try to push back when Jackson noted that her defense of transgender rights — an issue that Trump has tried to use as a wedge — has been less than full-throated.
Here are five takeaways from the interview.
No matter the electoral risk, she’s staying loyal to Biden.
Harris was again allowed to break from Biden, the unpopular incumbent.
Again, she did not take it.
When Jackson asked if the Biden administration was “an obstacle to you in this race,” Harris responded by addressing the cost of living and expressing her loyalty to Biden. She did not provide substantive policy differences.
“Let me be very clear: Mine will not be a continuation of the Biden administration,” Harris said. “I bring my own experiences, my own ideas to it, and it has informed a number of my areas of focus.”
Her approach is understandable. As the vice president, she is a member of the Biden administration, and running mates do not traditionally break from presidents.
But polls show deep unhappiness with the direction of the nation: In October, 75% of Americans said they were “dissatisfied” with the way things were going in the United States, according to Gallup.
So far, Harris has presented little in the way of an affirmative case to differentiate herself from Biden beyond the fact that she is more than two decades younger.
And on Tuesday, Biden did not exactly return the favor, making comments that could amplify Trump’s baseless claims that the criminal cases against him are politically motivated.
While campaigning in New Hampshire, Biden said of Trump, “We’ve got to lock him up.”
He quickly caught himself. “Politically, lock him up,” he added.
Harris has left behind the spirit of ‘I’m With Her.’
Jackson pressed Harris on the roles that sexism and racism might be playing in the campaign, as Democrats worry about every factor that could cost her what appears to be an unusually close race. A clear gender gap has opened up in the polls, with Harris earning the support of more women and Trump doing better with men.
But on Tuesday, the vice president continued to make it clear that she was running on her record, not on her identity.
“I will never assume that anyone in our country should elect a leader based on their gender or their race,” Harris said. “That leader needs to earn the vote based on substance and what they will do to address challenges and to inspire people to know that their aspirations and their ambitions can and will be achieved.”
It’s a major change from “I’m With Her,” the 2016 campaign slogan of Hillary Clinton, who was the first woman to win the nomination of a major party and leaned into her identity only to fall short against Trump.
Harris was asked about comments she made as a candidate in 2019 when she called out an “elephant in the room” — the question of whether the country was ready for a woman of color to be president. She said the answer to that question now is, “Absolutely.”
She said there could be no concessions on protecting abortion rights.
Despite campaigning with former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and courting Republican and moderate voters with a promise of bipartisanship, Harris appeared to draw a line on one issue: abortion rights.
On Tuesday, she effectively shut down a question about whether she would be willing to make concessions or extend an “olive branch” to Republican lawmakers in Congress in an attempt to restore Roe v. Wade and federal reproductive rights.
“I don’t think we should be making concessions when we’re talking about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body,” she said.
She added: “A basic freedom has been taken from the women of America: the freedom to make decisions about their own body. And that cannot be negotiable.”
Although Harris has promised to sign legislation restoring the protections of Roe, such a bill is unlikely to pass Congress without a series of Democratic upsets in House and Senate races.
An exchange on transgender rights grew contentious.
She didn’t take the bait on a Trump pardon.
Harris refused to be drawn into a question about whether she would pardon Trump if she won and he was convicted in his federal election interference case.
“I’m not going to get into those hypotheticals,” she said. “I’m focused on the next 14 days.”
Jackson followed up by asking if “a pardon could help bring America together.”
“Let me tell you what’s going to help us move on,” Harris replied. “I get elected president of the United States.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
